With the continual drive for increased operational efficiencies and reduced operating costs, many organisations are exploiting the benefits of integrating their Management Systems.

The new versions of ISO 9001, ISO 14001 & ISO 45001 are making it much easier to integrate the requirements of these standards and create Integrated Management Systems.

Having multiple management systems requires increased time and resources for their maintenance.

In some cases, each of the standards will be implemented by a different person, so the systems may follow different logic or structures. Also, the documents and processes are often structured differently, which can bring additional complexity to an already complex system. Having multiple management systems can easily become an organisational nightmare.

Instead of contributing to the improved performance of organisation, they become a burden that everyone avoids, and the standards are only implemented as a formality, without any real benefit.

On the other hand, having one Integrated Management System that meets the requirements of multiple standards simplifies the maintenance and coordination of many activities.

One short glance at the text of the standards shows great similarity of the requirements, especially now that all standards are aligned with the PDCA Cycle & Annex SL.